Test your hockey knowledge: take the ‘retired or active’ challenge

The news that Radek Bonk and Miroslav Satan had announced their retirements a couple weeks ago came as something of a surprise: not that they were hanging them up, but that weren’t already out to pasture.

Bonk, 38, hadn’t played in the NHL since 2009, when he had nine goals in 66 games for Nashville. Satan, 39, spent the past four seasons mostly playing in Bratislava, a club which eventually joined the KHL.

It was a little reminiscent of when Petr Nedved materialized in Sochi in February. We hadn’t heard from him in North America since he played out the string with Edmonton in 2007. But he was plying his trade year-in, year-out in the Czech league.

It also brought to mind a line uttered years ago by one-time journeyman Greg Adams, in which he said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Guys like Gretzky retire. Guys like me fade away.”

Thanks to the Internet and databases such as hockeydb and hockey-reference, it’s significantly easier to track the whereabouts of hundreds NHLers who do the Adams fade. At least, it’s simpler to find out when they were last active.

So I did a quick surf and played the “dead or alive” game; or more appropriately, the “retired or active” search? It was easy to get sucked into this vortex.

If you want to test your knowledge, here are 10 names to consider. Give yourself a point if you correctly guess whether or not they played in 2013-14. And chalk up a bonus point per guy if you nail the team for which he last appeared. Answers are here.